Fed up of commuting to work?

Well now may be your chance to do
something about it. The Department for Transport (DfT)
is asking businesses to provide their views on alternatives to
travelling to work, to inform its development of long-term
alternatives to travel strategy. The calls for evidence seeks views
on alternative methods of working, including home and remote
working, flexible working and staggered hours, telephone and
videoconferencing, and any other methods of reducing work-related
travel. Responses are invited from a range of organisations
including those not currently using such alternative methods of
working who have until 31 May 2011 to answer the
questionnaire.

The ability to request flexible
working is already on the statute books. Regulations that
would have extended the right to work flexibly for parents of
children under the age of 18 have been scrapped by the Coalition
government in a bid to cut red tape. The right to request
flexible working remains for parents of children under the age of
17 (or under 18 if the child is disabled) although the government
has stated that it is committed to extending the right to all
employees, with a consultation to be launched later in the
spring.

Some business may feel that remote
working is not feasible and that it might present communicaton
and other logisitcal problems but with the correct monitoring
systems in place there is no reason why an employer might not
implement this on a trial basis. We would be interested to
hear your views and experiences.